BULLIEVABLY GOOD: Year 5 student Amelie Collard was one in 13 highly commended entries recognised at Government House in Sydney for her anti-bullying poster.Ebony Stansfield

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Anti-bullying poster takes Amelie to Sydney

17th May 2018 5:00 AM

THE strength of an anti-bullying poster took Amelie Collard all the way to Government House in Sydney, where she was one out of 13 highly commended out of 45,000 Australian students.

Amelie, who is in Year 5 from Iluka Public School, was recognised for her resonating poster, which was entered into the Interrelate's Say No To Bullying poster campaign, at the awards ceremony in Sydney last Friday.

Amelie had the opportunity to meet NSW Governor David Hurley, which she said was very exciting.

"A bit nerve racking because I didn't really know what it would be like there, but exciting,” she said.

Amelie's poster focuses on happiness, which featured a sun in the middle with the words 'Believe in yourself', a requirement for the poster.

She also added the quote, 'You never know how strong you are until strong is the only choice you have', because it intertwines with being strong with bullying.

She chose her two favourite colours to make her poster as they express how she feels - happy and joyful.

Amelie said she thinks it's very important to learn about bullying at school because if you are getting bullied you should speak up.

"Talk to your teacher, and then your story will be passed down and get to learn about bullying and say no to bullying,” she said.

Teacher in charge of the program at Iluka Public Lynne Essery said each of the four years the school has participated in the competition they have managed to have finalists.

"We have been very fortunate and have some very talented students and our school is very proud of them,” she said.

She said at the start of the year the students were involved in resilience programs throughout all classes, with the poster competition acting as the final activity to sum-up what they had been learning about.

"By doing the lessons it sort of brings to the forefront strategies they can use to cope with those situations,” she said.

The competition has an impact on the students, with Ms Essery noting that the students get to share within the theme.

"They get to talk about it (bullying), share stories with other students, so they get to share their problems as well,' she said.

The competition also enables students to shine and be apart of something that is personal for them.

"It's a once in a lifetime experience to get to go down and meet the governor and be part of that experience that only a few get to have,” Ms Essery said.

Interrelate's competition aims to raise awareness of the issue of bullying and to assist schools to identify and address bullying behaviours.